Uranium is naturally occurring and can be found in drinking water it is regulated as a toxic metal not as a radio nuclide the EPA allowable limit is 30 micrograms per liter what is the ppb and one liter?

1 Answer
anor277
May 5, 2018

Well, #1*"ppm"-=1*mg*L^-1#...

Explanation:

Why do we say #"ppm"#...well one litre of water has a mass of #1000*g#...and each GRAM of water contains #1000*mg#...and so the total number of milligrams that the water contains is....

#1000*gxx1000*mg*g^-1=1000000*mg-=10^6*mg#...

Trace metals are often present in water at #mg# levels, and at these rather low concentrations, we do not have to worry about considerations of the density of the solvent.

But you have quoted #"part per billion"#...and this corresponds to #1*mug*L^-1#...and so in this drinking water, there is #1xx10^-6*g*L^-1="1 ppb"#..

Here water over #"30 ppb"#...i.e. that contained over #30xx10^-9*g# would fail the test.

See this site for a fuller treatment. You should know that #"1 ppm = 1 milligram per litre"# .......

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